Bibles with you turn with me please to the Book of Judges. Chapter 3 verse 7 is where we begin and we will work our way through this this whole passage. We have been introduced in these first two chapters to the pattern of the Book of Judges disobedience discipline distress and deliverance. And now, as we begin at verse 7, we move to the actual practice of that pattern being lived out in the nation of Israel, in God's people. Follow as I read. I have not printed the entire passage for us. One, it didn't fit on the page if you're using the bulletin. And I chose Othniel over Ehud because Othniel you are likely to forget. Ehud, you are not likely to forget. Hear the word of God. Judges chapter three, verse seven. And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord, their God, and served the Baals and the Asheroth. Therefore, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Kushan, Rishathayim, king of Mesopotamia. And the people of Israel served Kushan Rishathayim eight years. But when the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for the people of Israel who saved them, Othniel, the son of Kenes, Caleb's younger brother. The spirit of the Lord was upon him and he judged Israel. He went out to war and the Lord gave Cushan Rishathayim, king of Mesopotamia, into his hand. And his hand prevailed over Cushan Rishathayim. So the land had rest 40 years. Then Othniel, the son of Cenas, died. Pray with me, please. Father, open our ears. Open our hearts. Father, this is your word, and it is the word of truth. And so, Lord, let that truth be exposed, revealed in our own hearts and lives. You have granted us your spirit. Now lead us by the spirit, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. In your mind, what constitutes a good leader? Physical strength, stamina, strength of character, integrity, vision, courage, selflessness. What characterizes in your mind or constitutes a good leader? I am a fan of the Lord of the Rings. I have read it quite a few times, I think. until it's, you know, some things are fuzzy, and then I read it again. And now, of course, I'm to the point where nothing's ever fuzzy anymore, but I'll still read it because it's such a wonderful trilogy, such a wonderful work. And in that work, there are many noble, kingly leaders that are there. But the deliverer, if I can use that word, is an unlikely little creature called a hobbit, a halfling that has none of that outward regal nature or bearing that says, here is the leader. They are creatures that shun honor and glory and power. They just want to be left alone to enjoy themselves in the shire. so that they can garden and grow their flowers and drink their fun beer and smoke their excellent pipe weed. You know, that's what they want. And yet, in the story, it's the halfling that actually becomes that deliverer. Leaders don't always appear where we might look for them, we might say. And I think that's clear. as judges, as the characters and the people of judges unfold. We will find some likely and unlikely characters who are used as God's instrument, as God's instruments. And so we see Othniel. Here's a picture, a very vivid picture, and all the parts are there in this particular account of that disobedience on the part of God's people, the discipline, the distress, and the deliverance. The people, it says, did evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot their God. Now, that doesn't mean that they had a memory lapse. You know, like, I put them down somewhere. Where are they? Or the things that we've stuffed back, you know, in the archives of our mind that we know we can retrieve them and then we can't find them. Or we put something in a very safe place because we don't want to forget or lose it and then you can't remember the safe place. And that's not what I'm talking about. When they forget, biblically, the idea of forgetting is more than just those hiccups in our memory or whatever. Remembering and forgetting are tied to the actions that are being remembered or forgotten. God remembers his covenant. He remembers his promises, and so he acts accordingly. We pray, oh, bless the Lord, oh, my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Forget not. his benefits. It means not that we just can write them down but we remember that promise that he has made. We give thanks we we bless the Lord for his provision for his care for his protection for his power at work for us. We for we do the hope that is ours and the promises that are that are there of that life. We do not forget his benefits. We act accordingly. So the psalmist in Psalm 119 says look at my affliction and deliver me for I do not forget your law. We understand pretty clearly he's not saying I can write them down. He says I'm seeking to live according to your word. And so Lord look on my affliction. Psalm 103 verse 14 he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. And what follows in that wonderful psalm is the grace and the mercy of the Lord that flows to those creatures who are like dust. They're like flowers in the field that wither and they're just blown away. He remembers. Jeremiah 31, I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more. God acts accordingly. It's not that his His memory is faulty. Does he know our sins? Of course he does. But he remembers them no more. He treats us as if we are indeed forgiven and delivered from them. And the people of God forgot the Lord. They stopped serving him. It's not like they forgot his name, like we talked about earlier. But instead, they served the Baals and the Asherahs. They went after the fertility gods of the nations and the peoples around them. And so the Lord disciplined them. We see his severe mercy. God's anger was kindled against him. I have a wood stove. And until it gets really cold and it just stays cold, and I can just let that stove run, it occasionally goes out. I need kindling. I don't need much. You start that. And of course, the goal is one match. You light the stove with one match. That's it. That's all you got. And that kindling starts. And it is a matter of minutes, maybe, before that box is blazing. And God's anger, it says, was kindled against them. And it roars up into a flame so that he sold them. It says he sold them into the hand of Kushan Rishathayim. He gave them what they wanted. They went after other masters. They whored after those other gods. He simply sold them to them. And so they served this king. Now, the NIV, unfortunately, translates the king, Aram Naharaim. Aram Naharaim. Rishathayim. You get the, what do they call it, assonance and the rhyming that is there? I don't think Kushan Rishathayim is his actual name because that means Kushan of double wickedness. Aram Naharayim means king of the two waters. It's from the Tigris, the area of the Tigris and Euphrates, north of Israel. And this is the only way that they can get back at this wicked king, to give him this name, Kushan Rishathayim, this king of double wickedness. And he reigns in power over them for eight years. Eight years to come to your senses. I hope when the Lord's hand is upon you because of your disobedience and your sin, it doesn't take you eight years to figure out that you're being disciplined. But it took eight years. And in distress, they cried out, and the Lord's pity was upon them, and His compassion is poured out. And He raises up what we would see, and as is presented to us, an ideal judge. Othniel makes sense. We've met him before. We already know him as a man of faith. And in this account, no flaws, no shortcomings, no moral questions about his methods of deliverance or any such thing. It says he saved them. He called, gathered the army, gathered the men of Israel, and they rose up against Kushan Rishathayim. and defeated him. Why? Well, it says, because the spirit, verse 10, the spirit of the Lord was upon him and he judged Israel. God gave him his spirit for this particular task and they had rest for 40 years, 40 years. Now, Othniel, in a sense, we remember he is tied. He was born in that wilderness experience. and came into that land. And he still has that memory and that connection to Joshua and to Caleb, the ones who were faithful there. But 40 years passes, and Dothniel dies. And that whole generation that would have had that connection and would have remembered, should have remembered, is now gone. And so we turn. After those 40 years when Othniel died, we turn now to the cycle once more. And this time we go from no details to more than you wanted to know. Ehud, beginning at verse 12. And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord strengthened Eglon, the king of Moab, against Israel, because they had done what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He gathered to himself the Ammonites and the Amalekites and went and defeated Israel. And they took possession of the city of Palms. And the people of Israel served Eglon, the king of Moab, eighteen years. Then the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, And the Lord raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gerah, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute to him by him to Eglon, the king of Moab. And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his clothes. And he presented the tribute to Eglon, king of Moab. Now, Eglon was a very fat man. And when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. But he himself turned back at the idols near Gilgal and said, I have a secret message for you, O king. And he commanded silence. And all his attendants went out from his presence. And Ehud came to him as he was sitting alone in his cool roof chamber. And Ehud said, I have a message from God for you. Interesting choice of words. And he arose from his seat. And Ehud reached with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. And the hilt also went in after the blade. And the fat closed over the blade, for he did not pull the sword out of his belly. And the dung came out. Then Ehud went out into the porch and closed the doors of the roof chamber behind him and locked them. When he had gone, the servants came. And when they saw the doors of the roof chamber were locked, they thought, surely he is relieving himself in the closet of the cool chamber. And they waited till they were embarrassed. But when he still did not open the doors of the roof chamber, they took the key and opened them. And there lay their Lord dead on the floor. Ehud escaped while they delayed, and he passed beyond the idols and escaped to Syrah. When he arrived, he sounded the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim. Then the people of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was their leader. And he said to them, follow after me, for the Lord has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand. So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites and did not allow anyone to pass over. And they killed at that time about 10,000 of the Moabites, all strong, able-bodied men, not a man escaped. So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel, and the land had rest for 80 years. Amen. Our closing hymn will be number... Actually, there isn't a hymn in our hymnal 700 and some odd hymns that makes any reference to this passage. As a matter of fact, there isn't a hymn in our hymnal that makes a reference to any passage in the Book of Judges. So we're not going to be using those for our closing hymn. We need to look at this peculiar deliverer, Ehud. Of course, we're given at the beginning here a picture of Eglon's strength. The people did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord strengthened Eglon. And this man is a Moabite, no longer the threat from the north has been quelled for many, many years, but now Moab, to the direct east, on the other side of the Jordan, now they invade, along with the Amalekites and the Ammonites. And what we see, of course, is that God, it's the Lord who strengthened Eglon. He was to be used as God's instrument. He strengthened the hand of Eglon for judgment, whether he knew it or not. And we'll talk about that a little later. And Eglon invades, takes the city of Palms. That's Jericho. which is, of course, a lovely area. And we don't know if he actually tried to rebuild Jericho itself or settled close by, but you have to wonder, was he blind to the curse that was set on Jericho in Joshua 6, 26, that whoever is going to rebuild it is going to do so at the cost of their firstborn and their last? But he took it, maybe as a summer palace. He had enough control of Israel at that point that he could actually take up residence there. And for 18 years they knew oppression. Well, after 18 years in their distress, the people cried out. And now we see not Eglon's strength, but Ehud's strength, or maybe we should say his weakness. We're told that he was a left-handed man. That word that's used in the Hebrew for left-handed is an idiom as well, to bind up. In other words, we're not sure, but he may have been, speaking of the right hand being bound up, warriors held the sword with the right hand and the shield with the left, and that's how they trained, okay? Because, you know, when you're slashing, Assuming that your opponent is right-handed, you want to be able to defend yourself. Ehud was left-handed. It may very well be that the 700 lefties, I'll call them, from Benjamin, when you read Judges chapter 20, 700 warriors from Benjamin were left-handed. Well, they would have been an unusual and a potent fighting force. as a result, and you just have to think about the battle. Okay, so I set up my shield to protect me from this right-handed blow, and then I served to open myself up. Only now, the person who is attacking me has been trained to block that blow and come right at me where I have no shield. It may be that he really was handicapped. And so Eglon had no fear of him. They'd pat him down. Well, he can't even use his right hand. So what threat is he going to be? He's a man who arms himself. He's got a plan. Eglon has a plan. I mean, Ehud has a plan. 18 cubits, about eight. How long is it? I forget how many cubits. I know that it's 18 inches. A cubit, 18 inches in length. sharpens it on both edges so that it doesn't matter which direction he strikes, he's got a sharp blade or any direction that he strikes. And he has chosen to bring the tribute, the present, to Egmont and likely did his very best to ingratiate himself to this king so that he could get close to him. As close as he could get, he has a plan. And so Egmont probably fans his Eglon's ego is fanned, compliments, superlatives. And they may have even brought up not just what was required in a tribute, but a gift to him. But he has no opportunity to carry out his plan. He's been resourceful and cunning. It seems that even those who are with him have no idea of what he has in mind. Because we are told that At verse 18, when Ehud had finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute. But he himself turned back at the idols near Gilgal. And of course, you have to ask the question, what are idols doing there? How far have they fallen that they have allowed these, even idols to the Baals in the Asheroth, to be placed at Gilgal? the place of that covenant renewal, the place where that stone of remembrance was placed by Joshua? And so he turns around there. I think those idols show the depth of the degeneration of the peoples. But Eglon, it appears, has kept his plan to himself, so there's no chance of exposure. and an arrogant king trusts him. Again, having appealed to his ego, he doesn't sense any threat. Somehow, Eglon has gained his confidence. And I say either through what he has brought and offered and the ways that he's presented himself or the fact that he actually is perceived as no physical threat to Eglon. And he comes with a message from God. The message may have been the same one that Daniel had to deliver to the king, mene, mene, tekel, parson. We were just talking about it at our Bible study Wednesday night. You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. Ehud certainly had a message for Eglon. And you can just, you can see the picture. You can see the picture. He's invited in. Eglon says, silence. And of course, in God's providence, all his servants interpret that as, oh, leave us alone. Get out of here. Back up. Go away. Leave him alone. Eglon invites him in. Ehud says, oh, I have a message for the king, as he bows. And so the king rises, and out comes the sword, and up it comes. Sorry, children. Your parents don't usually read these passages to you until you're older, I know that. And what happens? Well, of course, he dies. And we get that interesting fact about Eglon that he has grown on what he has stolen from God's people. The abundance of God's provision for his people, Eglon has stolen it and he has become a very fat man. And a sword with no... They call the hilt to protect you from other things. It all goes in. And his death is quick. And what often happens in death, everything lets go. And so this proud, arrogant king dies lying in complete ignominy. And he hood acts, moves, closes the doors, locks them, as a king could do in his chamber. And with the dung out, they make a reasonable assumption. He's busy. And so they wait, and they wait, and they wait, and they wait. To the point of embarrassment, they have to do something. And they get the key and find their king, wallowing, soiled, and dead. And meanwhile, Ehud has made his escape. Now, those are the details we want. How did he do it? Where did he go? How did he get down to those lower courts and able to make his way out? But the fact is, the Lord was with him, and he delivered him. We have more information than we want, and we probably have somewhat of less. information that we want. So much could have gone wrong. Clearly so much could have gone wrong. The Lord was directing this affair. And here is the power of God. And this is what we're supposed to see, brothers and sisters, in this strange picture of a man who, you know, may have been himself somewhat deformed or at least couldn't act in a way that everybody else could. What we're seeing is from the front to the back of the passage, God's work, both in the discipline of His people and in their deliverance. It's the Lord who disciplined them. The Lord sold them into slavery. They whored after other gods and He just sold them into their hand. And God sealed the deal, putting them into the hands of a foreign king. He gave them what they wanted. Not realizing that what they were pressing after and desiring would be absolute bondage to them. Slavery. A fire kindled in their heart that they couldn't put out but would destroy them. Be careful. Be careful, brothers and sisters. There is a tremendous warning here. You want the world's offerings. You set your eyes on those things and not on Christ and things above where he is seated with the Father in the heavenly realm. You want these gifts and his gifts begin to pale. Be fearful because you may get what you want. And you may not be pleased with it as you forget your God. and his hand we must pray would in mercy and grace come down upon you and upon us in these things. This was the Lord's discipline. Eglon's strength was not his own. The Lord strengthened we're told the king of Moab in verse 12. Because God uses the nations For his purposes, he is the one who is in control. I love Psalm 2 because the nations think that they can shake their fist at God and he scoffs, he laughs. They will do his bidding. And there's one of those, we've talked about the tension that we're going to see throughout the book of Judges. There's that tension. God will give strength to Eglon and he will oppress God's people. But, as he would say to Isaiah in regard to the Assyrians, against a godless nation I send him and against the people of my wrath. I commend him to take spoil and seize plunder and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. But, in other words, I'm using him as my instrument. He is my instrument for this. But he does not so intend. He doesn't recognize. He doesn't see at all. He doesn't know that God is using him. He thinks, I am doing exactly what I intend. And his heart does not think so, but it is in his heart to destroy and to cut off nations, not a few. God's instrument of a nation that was fully kings and rulers that were fully in control of their own actions and fully responsible for their own actions who would then be judged as the Lord would declare that Assyria would be judged for their arrogance and their oppression and that would be by the Babylonians and of course the Israelites are The prophets are struggling with that. How can you use such a wicked people to punish us? And God says, I'm in control. And justice will be done. We need to remember that it's the Lord who raises up powers and kings and nations for his purposes. But he does not make them do what they don't want to do. If we abandon the Lord for anything or anyone other than our Savior and Lord, any idol or any allegiance, we see that the Lord is released from an obligation, if you will, to continue to bless. And that's why we talk about that severe mercy of God, so that we might repent and know the tender mercies of God, we become his enemy on whom judgment is poured. Praise God, though, there is hope and there is deliverance because God will call and raise up those who he uses to deliver. And so we see God's hand and his control not only on the distress that has brought his discipline but also the deliverance. He raises up Othniel, as I said, a likely choice, a spiritual leader, a military leader, and Israel comes right behind him. The Lord stood him up and appointed him and the Lord empowered him that the spirit of the Lord was upon him. As we see throughout the Old Testament, the spirit comes upon individuals for a time to perform God's service and his power. So it wasn't Othniel's power that would save, but his trust in the power of the Lord. And God raised up Ehud. Talk about an unlikely deliverer, unanticipated, the unlooked-for choice, if you will. He begins acting, not just calling the nation together, but he acts alone. And God went through that and managed to encourage the people to follow him. But without the Lord going before him, I'm not at all convinced that his plan would have worked. It ends when he tries to come in carrying that little sword. And he dies on it instead of the king. And time after time, we see where the Lord's hand was there to deliver. We're supposed to see who is really in charge. That it's Yahweh. And He is carrying this through in His pity and compassion. He will bring deliverance. He raised up Ehud. And those who would come, who would follow Ehud, would be even more... We'll see them. They're even more unlikely as leaders and judges and deliverers. whether they're marred physically or emotionally or some seem to be stunted morally and ethically and spiritually, as we go through the list, God raises them up and uses even those broken vessels, if you will, to serve him. And as they go down farther and farther, our eyes are pulled more and more to look to the one who is promised, the one who is anticipated, the one who will be that long-awaited deliverer. The deliverance doesn't come for days or years until it all falls apart again. But we'll look to one who is more righteous than Othniel and more faithful and obedient and trusting. But this one who is raised up, is an unlikely one as far as the world is concerned because our deliverer was despised and rejected by men. We're told in Isaiah 53 that he wasn't handsome, he wasn't comely, he wasn't anything to look at. He wasn't a Saul who stood a head taller than anyone else and he said, well, that's the one. Or a David who was fair in his appearance and strong. in some way and strong in his trust. No, Jesus wasn't like that. And his power would remain veiled. It wouldn't be aimed at any military conquest. As the judges of Israel become weaker and more flawed in their character, they point us to the one who in weakness and submission would bring true and lasting deliverance. He would come in humility. And he would deliver his people, not through his army and his conquest, but through his death, fighting a battle that we cannot win over sin and death. He delivered his people in such a way. And now he calls us to not forget, to not abandon the Lord and seek after other gods. We need to walk with the Lord so we don't forget and fall back into that severe mercy and discipline again. And praise God, what means he gives us so that we remember, so that we don't forget? Here's the table set right in front of us. And we'll see in just a moment that Jesus' words are, do this what? You can repeat it. in remembrance of me. Not just remembering his name, but walking with him, walking in his strength, walking in his power, being renewed by him as we feed on him and take of his spiritual blessings for us when we come to the table. We are drawn together, bound together in a body. Here we're drawn together in worship. Why? So that we don't forget. so that we remember the goodness of the Lord, so that we recount to one another His grace and favor, His mercy, His kindness, His goodness, and His care. We'll do that Wednesday night, looking back over a year and remembering, recalling, encouraging one another in these things so we don't forget. We do it when we come together in worship. We do it when we'll gather together for those special occasions. We're renewed when we come and we take of the Lord's Supper, constantly we're being reminded by our Lord to remember and to hold, to set our eyes not on the things of this world and the struggles and the battles and the oppressions that we see, not to ignore them, not to forget them and to live and act as if these things aren't real. You know, we're not Christian scientists. This is just all an illusion here. No, we know that this is the reality in which we live. And God's hand is at work. And he will raise up nations to judge others. And he will bring low those whom he will bring to discipline. And he will do it in the lives of his people. And he will use his broken people to go out into that world to bring that message. That's who we are. That's what we're called to be. And through his word, and through his body, and through his worship, And through the communion of the saints and the fellowship of the table of the Lord, we will remember. And so walk in faith and strength. God, give us such grace. Yes, we will see the weakness of those who serve and die. They will lead us to the promise of the one who will never die. We will look at the world around us. We'll look at our leaders and we will see their sins. and their weaknesses, there's no question. And brothers and sisters, I would encourage us as we look at even our own land, we have seen so many talented, high-profile people whose weaknesses have been set now before the whole country. We need to be careful how loudly we join our voices to those who rise up in condemnation and judgment. Because where would we be if our secret sins and misdeeds were marked out as well and set before the whole world? We will still speak. Again, we don't ignore the sorrows and the sin of the world around us, even as we prayed that prayer of petition this morning. But our voice will rise to call to repentance and it will rise with a voice of hope and promise that there is life and grace and forgiveness and it needs to be burned in our own hearts and lives too. We pray and trust that the Lord will take these weak and broken vessels and by the power of the spirit Raise up men and women who walk in faith, who trust in the living God, in a Savior who is at work to make us whole and perfect and well. Let us look to Him for that power to save and to serve. Father, open our hearts. Father you set deep and wondrous and glorious truths and fearful truths before us here in your word this day. Father we do continue to pray that you bring repentance and faith and life into our hearts and lives that you would cause us to remember and then Lord to act boldly as you call us Proclaiming, Lord, not a word of destruction, knowing that there is that destruction, Lord, but to speak also of the word of life and the hope of life and the Redeemer whom you have raised up, who lives even now with us and in us. Hear us, we ask and pray in that name. In Jesus name, amen.